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2010-04-12

Arrietty at the Tokyo International Anime Fair

The Tokyo International Anime Fair was held recently, and Studio Ghibli was there to promote their upcoming feature, Karigurashi no Arriety, or The Borrowers. The most notable inclusion was this production book, which contains artwork and character designs for the film. As always, it looks spectacular, and I'm wishing I could get my hands on a copy. Perhaps this book will see a commercial release?

In any case, there will be an "Art of" book to accompany the movie, so we'll be looking forward to that. I do hope Disney will consider bringing this movie to the States. The Borrowers is a popular name, and there will be a built-in audience. And if they want to cultivate a long-term relationship with Ghibli, they will need to look beyond Hayao Miyazaki. Treating him as "Japan's Walt Disney" is a mistake. There are many immensely talented artists at the studio, and that needs to be understood.

4 comments:

Those drawings do look good. If Whisper of the Heart and My Neighbor the Yamadas and the like can have English versions, I don't see why Borrowers wouldn't. Having it in theatres, I dunno, but the title could help its chances.

I think everyone wishes they had enough money to buy art books. Each one just has so much life to them.

Have you heard of Ni No Kuni? It's a videogame, but it looks like an excellent collab between Studio Ghibli and Level 5. I'm curious to see what videogame sentiment is on here. The animation and character designs are really great in it. Not too much is know abotu the story yet though. I think it has something to do with the child going into an alternate world to find some way of saving his mother. I don't speak japanese though.

On the official movie web page, that image board book (Arrietty Mini Book 1) is noted as a giveaway for the first 150,000 people who buy an advance ticket. Advance ticket sales begin this Saturday, 4/17/10 in Japan.

I'm sure a regular-size image board book will be offered for purchase shortly. But this "mini" one is a promotion item. I imagine some of them might eventually show up on Japanese auction sites.

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